LCD Reference Article Article

Dropless Cataract Surgery

A53916

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Draft Article
Draft Articles are works in progress and not necessarily a reflection of the current billing and coding practices. Revisions to codes are carefully and thoroughly reviewed and are not intended to change the original intent of the LCD.
NOT AN LCD REFERENCE ARTICLE
This article is not in direct support of an LCD.

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General Information

Source Article ID
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Article ID
A53916
Original ICD-9 Article ID
Not Applicable
Article Title
Dropless Cataract Surgery
Article Type
Article
Original Effective Date
10/01/2015
Revision Effective Date
10/01/2015
Revision Ending Date
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Retirement Date
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Current Dental Terminology © 2023 American Dental Association. All rights reserved.

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Article Guidance

Article Text
Noridian Healthcare Solutions has become aware of a relatively new technique where a retrozonular or intravitreal injection of compounded antibiotics and or steroids are administered at the conclusion of cataract surgery (CPT 66984 or 66982 or related codes) as a means of reducing or eliminating the need for post-operative topical medications ("dropless" cataract surgery).

Noridian states that such injections are integral to the surgery being performed and are bundled with the cataract surgery code for both the physician and facility. Therefore, billing either Medicare or the patient for these services separately is not appropriate. Furthermore, because they are considered integral to and bundled with these codes, it is inappropriate to include such services when performed as a separately itemized part of a "package" related to the insertion of a premium intraocular lens.

There may be rare cases where services represented by intravitreal injection code (67028) and a drug code (J-series) need to be provided in the contralateral eye. In such cases the surgical code and the injection and drug codes should be appended with either a RT or a LT to reflect which eye the cataract surgery was performed on and which eye received the injection. Do not use modifier -59 in such cases as the claim will deny.

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Revision History Information

Revision History Date Revision History Number Revision History Explanation
10/01/2015 R3

Updated to indicate this article is not an LCD Reference Article.

10/01/2015 R2

Article converted to Billing and Coding. No change is coverage was made.

10/01/2015 R1

This coverage article effective 10/1/15 combines JEA A53915 into the JEB A53916 Article so that both JEA and JEB contract numbers will have the same final Medicare Coverage Database (MCD) Article number of A53916

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Associated Documents

Medicare BPM Ch 15.50.2 SAD Determinations
Medicare BPM Ch 15.50.2
Related Local Coverage Documents
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Public Versions
Updated On Effective Dates Status
11/08/2023 10/01/2015 - N/A Currently in Effect You are here
09/29/2020 10/01/2015 - N/A Superseded View
03/12/2018 10/01/2015 - N/A Superseded View
12/28/2014 10/01/2015 - N/A Superseded View

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